Where to Start?

Maybe I'll just do a day-to-day summary since my last update. No fluff, just the facts.

Wednesay1. Worked a full day and then picked up the munchkins from daycare. 2. Went home, ate dinner, put a pie in the oven for Thanksgiving dessert.3. Oldest boy complains about a stomach ache and refuses to eat his ice cream.4. Oldest boy pukes all over little brother's bed.5. Dad takes bedding down to the basement to be cleaned while I tend to the boy.6. Boy passes out, totally freaking mom out and taking at least ten years off her life. (Never been so scared in my life.)7. Turn off oven even though pie doesn't appear to be thoroughly cooked.8. Take boy to ER (checked in around 9:00 pm thanks to a 45 minute drive on slick, slushy roads)9. Boy is monitored and diagnosed with vasovagal syncope (loss of blood pressure due to vomiting)10. Boy is given red popsicle, given permission to go home, and promptly pukes in the middle of the hospital corridor.11. Home by 11:00 and the kids in bed shortly thereafter. All vomiting has stopped.

Thursday (aka Thanksgiving)

1. Clean house.2. Cook dinner.3. Company arrives.4. Realize turkey isn't cooking evenly on the rotisserie thanks to a cold, gusting wind. 5. Put said turkey into the oven to finish cooking, which pushes dinner back by about a half-hour.6. Finish making dinner.7. Eat.8. Clean off the table and put in the first load of dishes.9. Women scrapbook while the men watch, yes, you guessed it, football.10. Help the other women pack up their supplies when it's time for them to go home.11. Help load mother-in-law's truck because father-in-law's hips are still too fragile after surgery to have him lugging around the totes and cases scrapbooking supplies demand.12. Say goodnight to guests. 13. Put boys and babysitter (nephew) to bed.14. Clean up own scrapbooking mess.15. Go to bed. Gratefully.

Friday

1. Up at 5:00 with hubby so we can go shopping!2. Get half a mile down the road and realize I left shopping list and coupons at home.3. Return home for said coupons and list.4. Resume early morning adventure with hubby (who didn't even yell!)5. Target first. Last one of the item we wanted most was snatched seconds before we could reach it. Didn't stop me from spending nearly $170.6. Walmart next. Spent another $160.7. Hungry. Time for breakfast. Decide to go to the other side of town and sit for 45 minutes after placing order. 8. Eat breakfast, wishing I had known I could have ordered lunch.9. Spend lots of quality time with hubby. Very enjoyable.10. Pay bill. Leave a little tip. (45 minutes, people!!!)11. Go to Border's and buy Harry Potter #6 for self.12. Go to Lowe's. Get the three items on list. Can't believe they weren't sold out.13. Go to Sam's. Buy much more expensive version of the item we were looking for at Target. You get what you pay for, or so they say.14. Officially broke, so home we go. Hubby pays the sitter and takes him home.15. Eat lunch and dinner. Boring ho-hum afternoon.16. Hubby gets sick and goes to bed.17. Put kids to bed and wait for them to fall asleep.18. I bring in the gifts and begin wrapping.19. Hear crying upstairs. Realize youngest is now puking.20. Run upstairs and reassure him everything's fine. Take care of jammies, bedding, and boy.21. Tuck little boy into bed.22. Repeat 19-21 every 20-30 minutes for the next four hours while trying to wrap the gifts spread out across the living room floor.21. Finally get little guy to sleep.22. Decide it'd be wise to sleep on the couch instead of in bed with awake and miserable and sick hubby.

Saturday

1. Wake up to discover everyone in the house is feeling better. Breath huge sigh of relief.2. Clean the house (somewhat)3. Find Harry Potter #5 on my bookshelf and start reading.4. Tend to family and house only as necessary. (Selfish reader)5. Little guy and hubby still feeling a little under the weather.6. Finish Harry Potter #5.

Sunday

1. Decide this isn't a good weekend for church and sleep in accordingly.2. Start Harry Potter #6.3. Keep reading until the book is finished.4. Occassionally remember to talk to family and feed children.

Mom's House & Then the Store

Even though I spent 3 1/2 hours at my mom's house scrapbooking tonight, I only managed to get one two-page spread done. Of course, I was also helping her figure out why her scanner wouldn't work (ended up uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers and such).

After I packed up my stuff I had to go grocery shopping. Yes, at 9:00 pm, I was walking into Kroger to pick up some more last minute Thanksgiving dinner supplies. Sadly, I'm sure we'll discover Thursday morning that we're missing something essential. Doesn't it always work that way?

Done!

Ha! Just finished the second paper I had to write for tomorrow's class. I thought this one would be so much easier than the first. Not even close. The first one, my commentary, was fun to write. I focused on the use of color in Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban. While others may be bored by it, I find the whole pyschological impact of color to be fascinating.

Paper #2 was a bit more painful to write. We had to identify a community and focus on questions like whether or not women empower or undermine each other. I identified the unique combination of gender and ethnicity of the characters as their community. Then I addressed the issue of empowerment and whether or not I felt the two books in question handled the question in the same manner. Took for-flipping-ever!

But the papers are done and I'm ever so grateful. The only homework I should have to worry about over the holiday weekend is reading the next book on our reading list...oh, the agony! lol

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The movie was wonderful. It was everything I had hoped it would be. Of all the books, has always been my second favorite (book 6 gets first place because it explained why the adults stood aside while Harry and company stood in the line of fire time and time again).

Anyhoo...back to the movie.

It's not often you can go to a movie on opening night and spend less than $20 for three people. It's unheard of, but I somehow managed it tonight. The University was sponsoring a movie night at my favorite theatre; all you had to do was show a student ID and you got two tickets free and two coupons for a medium drink and popcorn. I only had to buy candy and one ticket. The ticket cost me $10, which was fine because the show was sold out and only the University held tickets, and the candy cost me $6. $16.00 total. I can't get over it!

Standing in line with a four-year-old and a seven-year-old for 30 minutes wasn't fun. Restless doesn't even begin to describe it. Eventually we got into our seats...and only had a twenty minute wait. Again...restlessness. Figeting and anxiousness.

Of course, you know I had to take the little one to the bathroom at least once during the movie. Fifteen minutes later the oldest has to go (I made him hold it because the movie had maybe fifteen minutes left).

The boys had proclaimed this their favorite HP movie, and have demanded its purchase tomorrow. When I explained it wasn't possible there was great disappointment but I think they'll live.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

I've nearly beat the game. I've already been inside the last maze leading to the climatic confrontation. A sneaking suspicion told me my characters weren't powerful enough to defeat the big boss--that's what they call the major opponents in these games--so I decided to go online and find a cheat sheet.

Boy, oh boy. I missed so many little side quests! These side quests provide incentive for completing them, lovely little goodies to help your characters. Weapons, armor, and various other items of usefulness can be found or won. So, cheat sheet bookmarked and open for easy reference, I started to backtrack. I'm glad I did. I unlocked another fusion monster for Kurando and have powered up several other characters.

Of course, having the cheat sheet means I now realize just how many things I've missed and how much more powerful my characters would be if I had only known! Ah, well. It's just a game, right?

I find this funny.

Meh

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I know I enjoy writing, but do I have what it takes to dedicate myself to it? I'm not sure. When I consider how often it's the last item on the priority list, I think perhaps not. I can't even say its the fault of the husband, children, job, or household chores. I watch too much tv to say such a thing.

~Reading doesn't count. It's part of the whole process for me.~

So then I ask myself if it's not a priority, what is it? A hobby? It's certainly not an addiction. I can go for days, even weeks, without writing a single word. It used to be. I remember when I couldn't get enough time on the computer, when I'd ignore television and even the people in my life, just so I could get the story out of my head and onto the screen.

When did I lose that drive? Will I ever get it back?

Then there's the whole publishing thing. Is it absolutely necessary to be published in the traditional sense? Lots of people take the e-book route. Lots and lots. I don't know how well they're doing but they've at least made an effort to get their name and book out there.

I have a story I've been seriously considering polishing (grammar and typos only) and converting to a pdf. I think I might just throw it on my website, or this here blog, and let the curious read it for free. I'd be sharing my story, and isn't that really what it's all about?

I'm going to keep thinking on this. I just don't know what in the hell I'm meant to do...

Oh, The Things They Say

Last night was parent-teacher conference for my oldest son. We hadn't heard all that much from his teacher this year so we really didn't know what to expect. After last year's continual up-hill struggles I must admit I didn't have high expectations. While he didn't get all As, he scored mainly between 89% - 70% on the majority of the scored areas. They don't award letter grades just yet. The grading scale is set up something like this:

1 = 100-90%2 = 89-70%3 = 69% or lower

His report card had a few ones and a couple threes, mostly he scored right in that average range. I can live with that.

What I really like is its evident his teacher likes him. She told us "there's not a mean bone in his body". She also told us he's quite the storyteller. Very creative. While most teachers would have labeled his exaggerations as lies, she complimented his public speaking abilities. "He's very confident and at ease in front of his classmates". Even when he's telling a whopper.

Here's a great example of a story stretched beyond the truth.

First, the facts: my son had borrowed his dad's hat that morning, another little boy took a liking to the hat and wanted to claim it for his own. This led to a confrontation the teacher and principal had to sort out. At first, my son stuck to the truth--it's his dad's hat and he has to take it home or he'll get in trouble. Unfortunately, the other little fellow wouldn't admit defeat at this point, forcing my son to add some flare to his story in an attempt to earn sympathy points.

The hat wasn't just his dad's. It was his dad's dad's dying friend's hat. Yes, the child actually said the little knit cap originally belonged to someone dear to the family who was dying.

Save those chuckles. I'm going to give you a laugh out loud moment.

Now, you'd expect most teachers to be offended by this behavior. My son's teacher is going to channel it into fiction writing. (I think I may love her). She also said they'd work on when it's appropriate to make things up and when it's not, something we'll reinforce at home.

Now for the really funny part. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment. The teacher asks my son to read from his journal. He flips through the book he's been keeping since the beginning of the school year and selects a passage on keeping his family safe. Aw, how sweet, you say. Uh huh. I thought so, too, right up until he said "I want to keep my family safe from drugs and alcohol" and then he looks at me and his eyes get real big and accussing, "Mom!"

Great! His teacher and her assistant now think I need rehab or something. That's just lovely. You know that's how rumors get started, don't you? LOL

Because I'm Lame and Have Nothing to Post

Good News (Let's Hope It Lasts)

The little man saw the surgeon as scheduled yesterday. It was pain-free and promising. If in four weeks time the cyst looks as flat as it did yesterday, we won't have to worry about surgery. However, if the little bump that has been there since birth reappears, the surgery is back on.